Medicare will expand coverage to include a number of preventive services to reduce cardiovascular disease, according to an announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

This new coverage policy will add to the existing portfolio of free preventive services available for people with Medicare through the Affordable Care Act. It contributes to the Million Hearts federal initiative seeking to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the next five years.

Under this coverage decision, CMS will cover one face-to-face visit each year to allow patients and their care providers to determine the best way to help prevent cardiovascular disease. The visit must be furnished by primary care practitioners, such as a beneficiary's family practice physician, internal medicine physician or nurse practitioner, in settings such as physicians' offices.

During these visits, providers may screen for hypertension, encourage aspirin use in appropriate cases and promote healthy diet as part of an initiative to reduce cardiovascular disease in the United States.

The behavioral counseling intervention for aspirin use and healthy diet should be consistent with the "Five A's" approach that has been adopted by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, according to a CMS decision memo.

Assess: Ask about/assess behavioral health risks and factors affecting choice of behavior change goals/methods.

Advise: Give clear, specific, and personalized behavior change advice, including information about personal health harms and benefits.

Agree: Collaboratively select appropriate treatment goals and methods based on the patient's interest in and willingness to change the behavior.

Assist: Using behavior change techniques (self-help and/or counseling), aid the patient in achieving agreed-upon goals by acquiring the skills, confidence and social/environmental supports for behavior change, supplemented with adjunctive medical treatments when appropriate.

Arrange: Schedule follow-up contacts (in person or by telephone) to provide ongoing assistance/support and to adjust the treatment plan as needed, including referral to more intensive or specialized treatment.

The new coverage policy does not change Medicare coverage for beneficiaries diagnosed with cardiovascular disease to receive assessment and intervention services, according to CMS.

"Access to preventive services helps Medicare beneficiaries identify health-risk factors and disease early to provide greater opportunities for early treatment," CMS Administrator Donald M. Berwick, MD, said in a news release. "CMS continues to carefully and systematically review the best available medical evidence to identify those preventive services that can keep Medicare beneficiaries as health as possible for as long as possible."

To read the new policy, visit http://go.cms.gov/s8Owd7. For more information about Million Hearts, visit www.millionhearts.hhs.gov.